503 Edwin Week Anthology
by RoboticRainboots
Summary: A collection of Edwin one-shots for 503 Week on tumblr. Featured Prompts: Day 01: Firsts Day 02: Scars Day 04: Nerds Day 05: Secrets
1. Firsts

**Day 01: Firsts**

Edward Elric can count the number of times he's cried since he was eleven all on one hand.

There was the evening of the transmutation, when he cried in frustration as he screamed for Truth to give him his little brother back.

He cried twice on the Promised Day. Once that afternoon, when Alphonse's armor laid broken like a smashed wind-up toy on the pavement and the other that night, when they both laid there together in a half-made hospital bed and both sobbed out of relief.

The only other time after that that Ed cried was the day he married Winry, and he has no regrets about it whatsoever. Did the whole congregation watch him cry, overcome with happiness about marrying the most beautiful girl in the world? Yes. But does he love his wife and doesn't care? Also yes.

He'll never live it down, though Colonel Mustang wouldn't let him even if Ed wanted to. He constantly pokes at him about it, but Ed can't find it in himself to mind.

This time will mark his fifth, whether things turn out good or bad. Either way, Ed knows he's going to be a train wreck of emotions when this is all over.

A nurse comes speeding down the hall, right past Ed and into the nursery. She's holding a baby bundled up in a soft, cream-colored blanket. Ed stands, ready with a million questions for her, but she passes him by without so much as a glance and another nurse rushes up behind her and tries to calm Ed, telling him that the child the first nurse clutched to her so tightly isn't is his.

It's been several hours since he was escorted out of the room where Winry laid in the hospital bed, her face pale and sweaty and her hair in disarray. It wasn't supposed to go this way; the birth was supposed to be normal and fine. Winry was an old pro at this. Not because she'd ever given birth before, but because she's a doctor and an automail surgeon; she knows about this kind of stuff.

And because she's single-handedly delivered a baby before. He won't forget what he did for the LeCoulte family in Rush Valley

But things don't ever seem to go as Ed has planned for them to, and things started to turn badly as the birth progressed. The doctors are hoping neither Winry nor child will be harmed, but they couldn't be sure and so they began taking what precautions they could.

Precautions that didn't include Ed being there.

_Complications with the birth_, one nurse had said as she escorted him out to the public waiting room. She said more, but Ed knew it was nothing of importance, just general, detached words of comfort and so Ed tuned her out.

Something is happening. Something bad, something unexpected.

_Fuck_, he can't lose Winry too. Not their child that they've worked so hard to make a life for.

He doesn't like to think that anything horrific is going on as he sits in the blue, plastic chair and waits impatiently, his mind spiraling out of control. He doesn't want to think about all the endless possibilities that can come of these complications in birth, but the thoughts plague his mind anyway. Winry could be hurt. Their child could too.

No one will tell Ed anything and it's driving him mad.

"Are you Mr. Rockbell?" A nurse comes by, breaking Ed from his thoughts.

Ed jumps up. "Yes!" he shouts, a little too loud for a hospital waiting at two in the morning and not bothering to correct her on his name. At this time the little nuances don't really matter, there are so many more important things going on.

The nurse smiles. She's young, almost too young to be working here at around eighteen years or so, but Winry was working harder medical tasks at much younger, so perhaps he shouldn't underestimate this woman's abilities. She has a charming smile, one with a gap between her two front teeth, and she nods to him, confirming the answer to the question he hasn't yet asked.

Ed visibly sighs in relief, letting out a breath that he's been holding for hours now.

"Can I see her?"

"Of course." She has a breathy voice, the kind with all the right pauses and emphasis to put scared family members at ease. "Right this way."

Ed follows her down a hall painted lilac and with little motifs of flowers trailing down the walls, painted lilies and daisies with pressed leaves encased in glass picture frames. The place looks too welcoming for a hospital, but perhaps that's because this is a maternity ward and it's typically a joyous occasion for the majority of people. Ed knows it is for him, it _will be_, but he's not going to be able to be fine fully until he absolves this anxiety for himself by seeing his wife and child safe and sound.

The clicks of the heels of their shoes boom loud as they echo down the empty hallway and press on the tile. There's something ominous about the lilac hall, something that allows Ed's anxiety to continue to simmer.

Someone should really give this place a remodel.

Winry is still in the same room that she was in hours ago that Ed was asked to leave. Nothing about the door of the room has changed, the wood is still chipped in the bottom right corner and the temporary nameplate that has Winry's name on it still has the ink smudged across the two L's where whoever wrote the card must have dragged their hand in a rush. It's the same door, but it's no longer shrouded in panic and fear. It's an endless mystery now, anything could be inside, but it isn't a thing that is frightful. Ed isn't scared of the unknown, but still, he's more impatient than ever to see what fate awaits him behind it.

The nurse pushes open the door. "I'll leave you three alone," she says, quickly stepping away in a flurry and turning into the next room over.

He thanks her, his head in a haze. _You three_, she had said. You _three_.

Ed steps in, the door swinging shut behind him. He can't see them yet, there's a curtain on a moving stand by the door blocking his view.

"Knock, knock," Ed greets, at the edge of the curtain, not yet having stepped past it to see her. There's hesitation in his voice, but there's something like wonder there too. He's standing on the precipice of unknown greatness, he can feel it in his bones.

Ed can hear the smile in her voice, "who is it?"

"Your very worried husband."

"Oh well if it's only him then I guess he should probably get in here."

Her voice is exhausted yet playful and Ed can only imagine how tired she must be right now. She's been up for god knows how many hours working intensively to bring a new life into this world.

Without waiting any longer, Ed steps in.

However he had envisioned this moment, the millions of times he played out his first glimpse of their child in his mind throughout the course of Winry's pregnancy, the moment was never as good as it is here in reality.

His dreams, though spectacular, will never capture the true elation and relief of knowing they're okay and feeling the magic of seeing them in the yellow glow of the lamplight.

There's a bundle swaddled up in the same cream-colored blanket of the baby Ed saw only minutes before that that nurse was carrying laying across Winry's chest. Both her hands are wrapped around the tiny body, clutching it close like it's the only thing worth protecting in this world.

It's so small, so tiny. It's a miracle that so much magic can be fit into such a tiny being.

And then there's Winry, and for as exhausted and weary as she looks, she's absolutely radiant. There are dark bags under her bright, blue eyes and there are dried tears on her cheeks, but for all that even, she's completely stunning. Ed could never love anyone more.

"Wow," is all he can manage to get out.

She laughs. "Would you like to meet him?"

Ed nods, not trusting himself to speak. He can already feel it, the welling up of tears inside him like a great flood.

_Him_. Their baby is a boy.

Ed pulls up a chair beside the bed and Winry outstretches her arms, presenting the tiny miracle to him.

As Ed takes him from her, the child yawns, scrunching up his tiny nose and stretching out one of his tiny arms, his right hand clutched in a small fist. His skin is pale and soft, his cheeks splotched with the redness of all newly born infants.

His head is covered in a small, blue cap, and his eyes are closed, his soft, blond eyelashes—so blond they're almost invisible—resting on his rosy cheeks. Honestly Ed is having a hard time even getting past those tiny, scrunched up features like a Persian cat.

And then the baby opens his eyes and the entire world shifts on its axis for Ed. It's like the continental plates have decided to move all at once, the surface of the earth shaking and altering.

His eyes are blue. Not that same sapphire blue like gemstones that makes up the color of Winry's eyes, but a blue so light they almost look green.

The same eye color that Mom had.

They're stunning. They glitter in the light as the baby peers up at Ed, catching his first glimpse of his father.

"I know," Winry whispers, clearly seeing what he sees like she's able to read his mind. "Aren't they beautiful?"

"Yeah."

"Oh Ed," she whispers, and Ed feels a cold finger press up against his cheek. "You're crying."

Ed laughs, a wet laugh that he feels bubbling up from somewhere deep inside himself like a geyser exploding in his chest. "Am I?"

She nods, tears of her own falling onto her lashes.

The baby Ed holds blinks up at him and Ed just smiles, tears falling freely down his face. He can't do anything else; smiling and crying is all he's capable of it seems. It looks like his little boy already knows his papa.

Ed hands their son back to Winry when he starts to get fussy and she gently rocks him to sleep.

Ed mops at his eyes with his shirt sleeve, drying away his tears as best he can while never letting his permanent smile slip from his lips. He's too overjoyed at this moment to care about appearances or anything else. They really did it. _She_ really did it. Here they are, both sitting alive and well in this hospital room with their first child.

Ed can't think of a better moment than this.

"Nicholas," Winry says as Ed messes with his sleeve.

"What?"

"We said if he was a boy we would name him Nicholas."

While Winry was still pregnant, they'd spent evening after evening sitting on the couch together, flipping through baby catalogs looking at baby bedding and baby clothes and baby toys. There was a lot that came with having a baby. Everything had to be purchased in new baby sizes for little baby hands.

And then there were the names. They would spend those same evenings writing down names on a notepad of paper every time they found one in one of the baby books that suited their fancy.

There were lots of them they liked. _Andrew and Lilly. Collin, Wilfred, and Samantha._ It was an important decision, one of the most important they would make, but there were just so many to choose from.

Nicholas was ultimately the name they decided upon if their child was a boy, and so Nicholas he will be.

It's a good name, Ed had thought at the time when Winry had written it out in the journal in her precise handwriting. It sounds strong and noble. The name of someone who will do something great.

_The people's victory_, they had read it mean. Greatness embedded in his very being.

"Nicholas," Ed repeats to Winry, smiling at her and the child that now sleeps in her arms. "Nicholas, our firstborn."

"The first of many," Winry adds and Ed only smiles back.

The first of many indeed.


	2. Scars

**Day 02: Scars**

Edward knows this moment was to come eventually, but that doesn't mean he hasn't still been putting it off for as long as he possibly could have. They've only been home for three days now, so Al being back in his body is still the main topic on the forefront of everyone's minds, but Ed knew that some of that attention would fall back onto him eventually, and now it is finally doing so.

"Winry," Ed says, his fingers tracing the edge of his shirt, "you really don't need to inspect it, I promise I had the doctors look at it. You can even ask Al when he wakes up, he'll vouch for me."

"Yeah, probably because he was the one who made you get it checked out in the first place," her lips purse when he didn't argue back, knowing she's completely right. "As your mechanic, it is my sworn duty to make sure you are being taken care of properly and as unprecedented as this is, it's still my duty to check over the scars where your automail _used_ to be."

Ed looks up at her with what he hopes is his best sympathetic face, but she only put her hands on her hips and he knew she isn't going to budge.

It's with a heavy sigh that Ed tugs on the hem of his shirt and pulls it up over his head, revealing the skin underneath and sending a swath of heat to his cheeks. He's been shirtless in front of Winry countless times, but never in the past did he ever feel flustered when doing it. There was never any kind of reaction, any kind of embarrassment, but this past year it seems to all come crashing in on him at once.

Right now he's exactly that, flustered. Flustered and afraid.

He's sitting on the pink duvet of her bed, peering out at the sunlit yard through her bedroom window. Usually they do these kinds of automail checkups somewhere more professional, usually the workshop downstairs, but he was up here already when the topic had been brought up. Al had just fallen asleep for his midday nap and so Ed had climbed up to Winry's room to chat with her because right now he was looking for anything to get out of cleaning out the chicken coop like Granny had told him to do.

It isn't the first time they've been alone together since they've come home three days ago, but it's the first time he and Winry have had complete privacy while alone.

They'd sat there talking for a while, Ed sitting backward in her spinning desk chair and her on her bed, the both of them exchanging stories. The past year had been quite the wild ride. Briggs, Greedling's gang, the Promised Day. So much had happened in so little time.

And that, of course, lead them onto the topic of Ed's arm. The arm he had gotten back.

The scar where steel had been seared to flesh is probably Ed's biggest and most prominent. It's pink circles like the rings of a tree that warp his skin in crisscrossing patterns.

Ed knows that she knows that he collects scars like a collector would with vintage coins. Each individual scar shaping up in their different arrays and patches across his skin. He used to have nightmares where his skin would be so scarred and torn from all that he had experienced that eventually his skin would be comprised more of scar tissue than regular flesh.

He wasn't too far off the mark with that one.

But it isn't the giant scar, the most glaringly obvious one that leaves a bright pink ring of jagged lines around his right shoulder, it's the one that's a bit less obvious, the one that is on his lower abdomen that worries him more than anything.

If Winry sees that one then she's going to have a fit.

Ed takes a seat on her bed on the white and pink comforter and Winry sits behind him, her legs folded up underneath her. He peels off his gray, cotton shirt and with her index finger, Ed feels Winry trace the edges of his automail scar and Ed shivers at under touch. It isn't that her fingers are cold per se, but they send vibrations up his back at her touch like she's filled with static electricity.

"It's so interesting," Winry says under her breath.

"Thanks, glad to know that's what _you_ think of it."

"Hey, I've never seen anything like this. People don't usually lose an arm, get automail, and then regain the same arm back half a decade later. I'm one of the only people in the world who gets to see anything like this, so pardon me if I think it's neat!"

"Yeah, yeah."

"Did they get the scraps from the port out? I can see where the incisions once were, but I don't see any screws or bolts or anything remaining in there."

"Yes, Winry, they took everything out," he says, his voice flat, clearly not wanting to do this. He's waiting for her eyes to inevitably travel lower, which is exactly the opposite of what he wants. "Damn bastards put me under for it and everything! Granny hardly wanted to put me down for the installation when I was eleven! The people in the big cities are living with a damn luxury!"

She comes around to the front of him, inspecting it from all angles to make sure they did a good enough job to her liking. When she seems satisfied, Ed makes a move to get up but she puts a hand on his shoulder, guiding him back down to the bed.

"Hold on, Ed. I haven't quite yet finished."

"Can I put my shirt back on yet?"

"No. What's eating at you anyway? Why are you so antsy to get out of here, you have somewhere to be?"

"No." He looks down at his lap, trying to figure out an excuse, but can't seem to find one.

He could tell her he has to go clean out the coop as Granny said, but he'd really rather not.

"Then sit down and be patient for once."

Her eyes must travel from where his scar is on his shoulder down his back as she sits back down behind him. He feels her finger trace from freckle to freckle on his back like she's charting them for constellations.

He doesn't think she's doing her duties as a mechanic any longer, this is something else.

He knows she sees it when he suddenly feels her jerk her hand away from his back with a sharp gasp.

"Ed," she says, her voice weak with a slight tremble, "Ed, what is this?"

"Winry—"

She frantically crawls around to his front, searching for the other half of the scar.

He knows what it must look like, he's inspected it before and he knows it isn't pretty. The scar is an uneven, pink, fleshy mass with a slight discoloration near its center. It's pretty big, steel beams typically are much wider in diameter than one might expect them to be, and the exit wound on the back mirrors the front one perfectly.

"Ed, how—"

"Winry, I don't want you to be upset," he takes her hands in his and pulls them close. "You must understand that I didn't mean for—"

"Ed, what happened?" Her voice has a hysterical pitch to it.

Ed takes a deep breath. He can't lie to her, he wouldn't even consider it, but he also knows that the truth will hurt her just as bad. He remembers lying at the bottom of that empty mineshaft thinking about Winry and how she would react. It was keeping her from crying that was his driving force for what he did, she is the reason he's still alive. Without the thought of her so enraptured in his mind at the time, he hardly believes he could have gotten through that. But now, as they sit here on the bed so many months after, Ed can't help but think she's going to cry anyway just at the sight of it.

"When I was in Baschool, I was fighting with Kimblee and he blew me into a mineshaft where an explosion went off. A steel beam broke and fell through me, pinning me to the ground." It sounds truly awful any way he says it and Ed can't help but wince at his own words. "I'm sorry, Winry. I never meant for you to see this and to hurt you with it."

She nods, her eyes still as round as soccer balls and tears cling to the edges of her eyelashes, ready to spill over at any moment.

"How—" she starts, her words fading out.

"How what?"

"How did you survive?"

Ed looks away. There's the long answer, the one that delves into the theoretics of alchemy, particularly alchemy of the soul and human transmutation, but that's the explanation that he'll give to Al when he inevitably sees the scar for himself. Instead, Ed chooses to give Winry the simpler versions of thing, the one that chooses to focus more on the events and what follows after and less on the theory behind it.

"I transmuted myself."

"You—you what?"

Okay so maybe that was a _bit_ too blunt.

"I used some of my own life force to transmute the wound closed."

Winry gapes at him. "What exactly does that mean? Ed, that doesn't sound very good."

"I'm not exactly sure. I've never heard of it being done before."

"Oh, Ed," she's trembling again and Ed yearns to pull her close and whisper into her hair that it will all be okay. He wants to, he really does, but he doesn't know what this will mean for him either.

She leans forward and Ed pulls her up to him. She places her face in the crook of his neck where his automail scar is and he holds her close. This isn't what he wanted. If it was up to him, he would have never shown Winry the scar, never freaked her out with the reluctant truth.

Against his skin, Ed feels a wet tear drip from Winry's eyes and onto his shoulder, running down his skin.

"Winry, please don't cry."

"But—"

"When I was down there, in the mine, all I could think about was you. I remember lying there in the rubble and snow and being so determined to fix this. I couldn't give up, it was you who kept me going. I told myself I wouldn't let you cry ever again."

Winry pulls her face away from his shoulder, looking at him with her watery blue eyes and red face.

"So please don't cry," Ed brings a hand up to her face and strokes under her eye with his thumb, brushing her tears away.

"I won't."

Ed takes back her hands in his. "Good."

She sniffs, looking away as a blush creeps up onto her cheeks.

"So what does this mean for you in the long run?" she asks, laying back on the bed and Ed joins her.

"I'm not exactly sure, but it doesn't matter. I'm just happy to be here, alive and well right now."

She nods and scoots close to him until she's pressed up against his side. Ed feels himself flush as her hair tickles the side of his chest.

"Have you told Al yet?"

"No."

"You need to. He has a right to know."

"I know," Ed sighs. "But I'm afraid he'll have a similar reaction as you had and I don't feel right putting him under that kind of stress quite yet, not with how weak he is."

She nods against him.

"I'm glad you're alive," she whispers when there's nothing left to say.

It's a funny little statement, and taken out of the context of the situation it would probably sound quite odd, but Ed understands what she means and he can't help but agree. He's glad he's alive too because where he is right now in his life has made all the struggling and pain of the past few years worth it. If he wasn't alive now, he wouldn't be able to lay here with the most incredible girl in the world and hold her so close.

For now, he doesn't care what problems the scar and the transmutation of his own life force as equivalent exchange will bring, he's just thankful for the present and what he does have.


	3. Nerds

**Day 04: Nerds**

The day Edward quits his job, he leaves work humming to himself because he couldn't be happier. He thought leaving a job he had grown to love so much would have been harder, and it _was_ a hard decision to make, but a million new pathways have just opened up to him now that he is—as the headmaster had put it—a free man.

Ed practically skips down the steps of the school as he heads towards the bus stop. It's a warm day, even for April, but Ed ignores the fact that he sweats in his shirt and slacks because even that won't deter his sunny mood.

There are still a couple weeks left of work, of course. He isn't quite as big of an asshole as to just to quit halfway through a semester, he's pretty sure that has to be illegal or something anyway, but there are only a few weeks left. He will finish out his teaching position until June, when classes end and his students take their exams, and then he won't be back in September when the next school year begins.

For the past three years, Ed has been working as a professor of theoretical alchemy at Central University. It had been a tough decision for him and Winry to make the move out here for him to teach. Their oldest at the time had only just turned one, and he and Winry didn't plan to stop there as far as kids went. There was also Winry's automail business that she claimed she was fine running out in Central, Granny was back in Resembool to hold down the fort there anyway. She wanted Ed to accept the teaching invitation at the university, said she wouldn't have it any other way.

Ed knows homesickness ate away at her from time to time, especially in those first few months. She missed Resembool—and still does—because it was the only home she had ever known and she didn't have the same roaming spirit as Ed, but she never complained about it. Not to Ed's face anyway, but he could still see how that façade would sometimes slip when she didn't think he was paying attention.

But that was when they had first made the move to Central three years ago. Since then, life has changed. They have given birth to a second child, a beautiful baby girl, and now Winry is just about to enter her third trimester with baby number three on the way.

The bus lets Ed off about a block away from their house. On most days he would have grumbled about it, slogging through the walk home, slightly annoyed, but this afternoon he hardly seems to notice.

All the trees that line their street are in full bloom right now. They make his allergies go berserk, but they're nice to look at. Last April, when the leaves of the trees had turned their vibrant shades of green after winter had receded for the next few couple of months, Ed had hung a swing on the oak in their front yard for the kids.

_"If I remember correctly,"_ Winry had teased, watching the kids argue over whose turn it was to push who, _"your father did the same thing for you and Al when you two were just kids."_

_"Oh shut it. I'm not anything like that bastard."_

Winry had shaken her head. _"No. You're not."_

Ed walks up the sidewalk to their house, picking up the newspaper which lies in their yard and brings it up to the front door with him.

"Papa!" shouts two voices that come barreling down the stairs and straight into Ed as he swings the front door open. Ed scoops Genevieve up in his arms, swinging her around and positioning her on his hip. He gives Nicholas the best hug he can manage with the boy clenched around his leg.

"I'm glad to see you two are both doing just fine," Ed greets his kids with a laugh, ruffling Nicholas's hair.

"Yeah! And Nick lost—"

"Shut up, Gen," Nicholas says back to his sister when she tries to tell Ed something from his arms.

"Now Nicholas," Ed starts, trying to be stern with his son, but a smile slips from his lips. Winry's better at this whole scolding thing than he is. "That's no way to talk to your little sister."

Genevieve sticks out her tongue down at her older brother from her high position and Nicholas just ignore her.

"But Papa, look!" Nicholas grins up at Ed with all his might, the new gap in his front teeth as plain as day. "Do you notice anything different about me?"

"I can't say that I do, kiddo," Ed teases, setting Genevieve back onto the ground.

"He lost a tooth, Papa!" Gen shouts and Nicholas turns on her with such rage that Ed thinks for a moment that he's going to have to intervene.

"Genevieve!" Nicholas shrieks and his little sister just giggles.

"It's okay, Nick," Ed places a hand on his son's shoulder. "I'm only joking with you, I see that your front tooth is gone."

That makes Nicholas beam. "Isn't it cool? And Mama says that if I place it under my pillow tonight then the tooth fairy will come by and leave me a few cenz!"

"Is that so?" Ed says, an eyebrow raised. He doesn't remember anything like that from when he was a kid, though he doubts he wouldn't have believed it even if he _was_ told about this tooth fairy, but he isn't about to contradict Winry now.

"Yeah!"

"Well good. I'm happy for you, Nick. You're getting to be such a big boy."

Nicholas stands up on his tiptoes as Ed ruffles the smaller boy's blond hair. Damn, his kids really are growing up so fast. He never realized time could fly like this.

"Speaking of your mother, where is she?"

"Workshop," they say in unison and Ed thanks them, turning into the kitchen and heading for the workshop.

The workshop was at some point a sunroom. Ed knows at exactly what point it went from being a sunroom to a workshop, the day they moved in, but that is irrelevant. For all he knows, the previous owners could have had an automail genius in their family too who preferred to make practical usage of the well-lit space and turn it into a fully functioning workshop.

Ed finds Winry sitting on the stool hunched over a metal arm, one hand on her belly and the other pulling apart different colored wires. The phonograph is going in the corner, playing some familiar jazz tune that Ed recognizes but can't name.

Winry doesn't even notice him as he walks in. With her back turned to him and all her attention poured into her work, she's in her own little bubble that nothing can seem to get in through. Ed often teases her about it, saying the whole city of Central could be on fire she'd never even notice if she was working on automail.

The afternoon sunlight glistens off her hair, shimmering down it in waves of gold. It's pulled back into a long ponytail which cascades down her back like the flow of a river and is secured with a bandana.

Her face is scrunched up in concentration as she moves her delft fingers through the wires with a practiced vigor. Ed always thinks she looks prettiest like this, with blotches of grease smudged on her cheeks and in her work coveralls while concentrating on her automail. It isn't anything in particular about her appearance that he can identify to be the source of that feeling, he just thinks that perhaps she just looks more beautiful when she's doing something she's passionate about.

She dedicates so much love to the work she does that it can't help but make Ed smile. Since the time she was as young as Nicholas is now, she's known her calling, her passion.

Ed wasn't always her biggest fan. For much of their childhood, he and Winry would tease each other mercilessly about their respective passion, Ed calling her automail freak and Winry calling him alchemy geek and Al in the middle trying to play mediator. He spent those early days turning a blind eye to automail, focusing solely on alchemy.

It wasn't until he was a bit older, a bit more mature, when he really saw what it meant to her. She was the one who put him back together when no one else could after the attempt at human transmutation. She was the one who taught him how to stand again, showed him how to walk on his own two feet—one of them being the foot she crafted just for him. They weren't just metal limbs or machines, they were a second chance at a normal life for people, a second chance for him.

She's so much more capable than she realizes. She can shape lives, teach those to live who have forgotten how to do it for themselves. To Ed, she is the very star he orbits around.

Ed comes up behind her and wraps his arms around her shoulders, pulling her into a hug. Sometimes he just has to take a moment and think _wow, I'm actually married to this incredible woman._

"Ed," she groans, "I'm trying to work."

Ed presses his face into her hair and breathes in her scent. "Are you almost done? I have things I want to talk to you about," his voice muffled.

"Oh? That sounds worrying," she doesn't look away from her work, but Ed knows her well enough to know the exact expression she's making. The one where she cocks and single eyebrow and angles her head ever so slightly to the left.

"It isn't. I just have a surprise for you that I think you'll like."

"Give me fifteen minutes. Go get dinner started in the meantime."

Ed over dramatically groans, but does as he's told, making his way out from the workshop and busies himself in the kitchen with pulling out the ingredients for chicken and rice. He sets the water to boil on the stove when she stalks in, definitely less than fifteen minutes later, and take a heavy seat in one of the chairs at the kitchen table.

He snickers to himself, knowing she's just as impatient as he is when it comes to finding out little secrets.

Ed sets two cup in front of them and pours them soda in their sparkling glasses.

Winry raises her eyes at it. "We're going fancy tonight, huh?"

"Since when is soda considered fancy?" Ed asks.

"Ever since we had kids."

"Well we didn't have anything else to drink, so this will just have to do. Besides, I don't think _you_ should be drinking anything fancier." He nods to her heavily pregnant belly and she just ignores him.

"So," she starts, taking a long drink from her soda, "what's got you in such a good mood?"

"Well," he smiles, excited to see her reaction, "I quit my job today."

She blinks. "You _what_?"

"I left my job. I won't be teaching next year."

"Why would you do that?" she stands now, looking down at him where he sits and suddenly Ed realizes this might have the opposite effect of he was intending. He thought she would be happy.

It isn't like had rushed into this without a plan. He had spent extensive time looking over their finances and bills and understood that the contribution she brought in from her automail business was significantly higher than what he made from his job as a professor, and that him quitting his job at the university wouldn't do anything to hurt them. In fact, he did this because he figured this way he could help her out even more around the house. He didn't want to see her have to take care of the kids during the day while he was at work and she is having to juggle her work with taking care of Gen and Nick and the newborn on the way.

_Maybe_ he should have consulted her on this one first.

"Winry," Ed stands up beside her and guides her back down to her chair, "hear me out first."

Winry crosses her arms on top of her pregnant belly but doesn't protest.

"I did this because I thought it would be good for the family. I thought that maybe with Nick starting school next year and the baby on the way it would be helpful. I know how stressful things have been on you."

Her face softens. "That's very sweet of you, Ed, but you don't have to do that. Really. You love alchemy and that job, I'm not going to take you away from that."

"Winry, love, I thought I made it clear long ago that there are always going to be things that mean worlds more to me than _alchemy_." He says that last part like he's scoffing at the word. He loves alchemy, he loves the study and the science, the exhilaration of it all, but that always comes miles behind those who he cares about.

"Ed…"

"And I figured if I quit, then we could move back to Resembool. You always talked about wanting to raise the kids out there and now we can!"

She blinks at him at a loss for words.

Winry leans forwards and Ed pulls her into a hug.

"Ed, your passion is alchemy. Seriously, I'm not going to drag you away from that."

"Winry, you're not dragging me away from anything. I made this choice on my own," he brings his hand up to her head and runs his finger through her hair. "Besides, _you're_ my passion."

Ed listens are she chuckles. "You really are quite the romantic."

"Thanks, I've been practicing."

She laughs and Ed blushes at the sound. He's been married to this incredibly talented woman for six years now and she still gets him flustered. God, he loves her.

"You know, if you're going to be home from now on, then I'm going to get you to help me around the workshop while Nick's at school."

"That's fine," he smiles coyly, glad she's settled down. "I definitely don't mind hanging around and watching you while you work during the day. In fact," he sends her a devilish smile, "I think I'd quite enjoy that."

She smacks him on the head and groans, breaking their hug. "I take it back, you're not the romantic I thought you were."

Ed winks at her and helps her out of her chair.

"The water's got to be boiling now so I better pour in the rice," he stretches out his legs and walks over to the pot, pouring in the contents and stirring. He expects Winry to leave and go find the kids to tell the dinner is going to be ready soon, but she stands there behind him unmoving.

"Hey, Ed?" she says after a moment when Ed realizes she doesn't plan on leaving.

"Hmmm?"

"I love you."

Maybe he made the right choice after all.


	4. Secrets

**Day 05: Secrets**

"Winry," Edward calls, rapping his knuckles on the outside of the bathroom door. "It's almost four, they're going to be here soon."

"Hey Ed, can you come in here for a moment?" Winry responds, her voice muffled slightly from being on the other side of the door.

"Are you okay in there?"

"Yeah, just come in here for a moment."

Ed grips the gold colored bathroom door handle and pushes, stepping into the master bathroom. The tile floor is warmed by the sunlight flooding in from the skylight overhead as Ed walks in barefoot. Today is the Summer Solstice, the longest day of the year.

They're supposed to be hosting a celebration for the holiday, inviting Granny and Alphonse and Mei, Teacher and Sig, and even Mustang and Hawkeye over to celebrate it. Teacher and Sig had declined the invitation, already having plans to travel west for what Sig referred to as a _romantic_ _getaway_, whatever that meant. The rest, however, were due to arrive pretty soon and Mei and Al probably an hour later when their train gets in. It's supposed to be quite the evening.

Nicholas and Genevieve are also quite excited to see all their family in one place. Ed feels bad they don't get to see more of them, not with Granny staying back to manage business in Resembool and Hawkeye and Mustang being so busy with their efforts to fix this country from the inside out and Mei and Al gallivanting across Xing.

Ed walks up to where Winry stand, her back turned towards him, looking down at something she's holding in her hand.

"Win," he starts, placing a gentle hand on her shoulder, "are you sure you're alright?"

She wheels around to face him. "Ed, I'm pregnant."

"You're _what_?"

"Pregnant. Look," she extends an arm out, holding out the test to him. Sure enough, she's pregnant. "I had a feeling I was too. In the mornings when I—why are you making that face, you look concerned."

He barks out a laugh, "I'm not _concerned_, I'm just shocked."

Winry shrugs. "It was going to happen sooner or later."

"Fuck, Winry. We're having another kid. Holy shit. Holy shit we're having another kid!/b" He picks her up by the waist and swings her around, Winry screaming in excitement. Then, with dawning realization, he puts her down realizing he most definitely shouldn't be roughhousing with her like that because _holy fuck my wife is pregnant_. For a second they're lost in the moment, nothing else around them mattering. Their entire worlds are filled up in each other. Once they're both on the ground, Ed leans forward and they kiss for a moment, their lips at the same height.

"Isn't it great?" she whispers into it.

"It really is."

"Mama!" a voice whines, breaking the moment entirely as the door bangs open. "Gen won't let me open the door for Aunt Riza and Uncle Roy because she says only you or Papa are allowed to open it!"

They both stare at their son standing the doorway looking up at them.

And the moment is over.

"Okay, Nick," Winry starts, recovering more quickly than Ed. "Tell Genevieve you can open the door for them, I give her permission."

"Aren't you and Papa going to come downstairs?"

"Yes, hon, just give us a moment. Can you do that for me?"

Nicholas nods and turns around and exits, leaving the bathroom door wide open.

Winry rears on Ed. "That was close."

Ed nods, still in some kind of state of shock that Winry's pregnant.

"We can't tell anyone," Winry says, going over to the mirror and making sure her hair is still in place, "it's too early on to tell anyone yet, we have to keep it a secret for now, you got that?"

Dumbly, Ed nods.

"Good, now let's go greet our guests!"

**.oOo.**

Keeping the good news a secret is a lot harder than Ed was expecting it to be, especially once Alphonse and Mei arrive. Ed's so used to telling Al _everything_ and keeping something this major a secret from him is next to impossible.

At least the kids are overjoyed to see them. Mei and Al will be in Central for the next few months, something to do with working out further alliance between the two nations, though Ed hasn't gotten around to asking them the specifics of it yet.

Mei brings both the kids gifts from Xing and they're over the moon about it. Genevieve won't stop trying to get Mustang to play dollies with her now that she has two new ones until he eventually concedes (though based on the face she's making right now, Ed would have to guess that Mustang isn't as great of a playmate as she was hoping he would be.)

For a while the thought of the secret leaves the forefront of Ed's mind and recedes to simply sitting on the outskirts, not quite gone but not so pressing either. There's tea and cheese and crackers and for a while, Ed sits on the couch sandwiched between Granny and Riza and just basks in the thought of getting to spend Solstice in the company of such great people.

At around seven they all head into the dining room and take their places around the table for dinner. Hawkeye and Mustang brought a casserole and Granny brought some of her famous homemade mashed potatoes. Mei and Al spent the last few weeks traveling so they show up empty-handed, but Al spends the few hours he's here before dinner baking with Winry in the kitchen.

The table is completely full with all nine attendees packed around it. Ed has to pull a chair in for Genevieve from the kitchen because the dining room table really only seats eight. Soon they'll have to start pulling up two extra chairs to the table once their son or daughter is born.

When the food is all eaten, Ed leans back in his chair and listens in on the conversation. Both Nicholas and Genevieve have fallen asleep at their seats at the table and the adults sit around chatting over their empty plates.

The food was good tonight, a little filling, but the holiday feast always is. He's left sitting his chair feeling warm surrounded by all the people he loves and just a tad bit too full.

"You're unusually quiet tonight," Hawkeye comments from where she's sitting on his left. "Any reason for that?"

_Yes._ "No—no reason," he responds, stuttering out the words like an idiot.

He swears she must know, the woman is unnaturally perceptive, but she doesn't push the issue either further and Ed falls back into his silence.

He has to be careful or he's really going to be found out.

Damn. In not too much longer there's really going to be another little one running around here. At least they'll be more prepared for it this time than they were for the first two. And there are also plenty of hand me downs that the baby can wear and gender won't be an issue on that one.

They'll have to make Nick and Gen share rooms, though, and give the baby one of theirs. The kids aren't going to like that, but Ed thinks that having a new baby around the house will probably make them forget about their temporary bedroom loss, at least for a little while.

From the corner of his eye, Ed watches Winry. Of course she's an absolute natural at all of this. No one would have any reason to speculate that there's something more going on here, that she's harboring some life-changing secret. Her face is perfectly positioned, every eyebrow raise and glance so natural. She would make a damn good actress if automail hadn't swept her up in its metalwork arms from so early on.

The noise around the table lulls and Ed looks to see everyone has fallen into their own little side conversations. From his left, he can overhear Hawkeye and Granny chatting away about something to do with dogs and to his left Winry, Mei, and Mustang are all in deep conversation about the benefits to opening up trade expansion even further.

God do they really have to be working out political policies at his dinner table?

Ed's eyes catch Al's who looks just as spaced out as he is. Clearly there's something on his mind too.

Ed tries to signal to him in question of what's up, but Al immediately turns to look at his wife and starts whispering something rapidly in her ear until her face breaks out in a smile. Whatever he told her, she clearly likes the idea and kisses him on the cheek.

The pair rise from their seats and everyone turns to look at them.

Well this is… interesting.

The voices of the room fall into silence.

"Um," Al starts, fiddling with his hands in a nervous fit, "Mei and I have an announcement."

Mei giggles beside him, wrapping both her hands around his arm and looking up at him with sparkling eyes. Ed always forgets just how significant their height difference is until he sees them standing side by side like this.

"Well you see Mei—or rather Mei and I—we're going to…" Al trails off and Ed takes a heavy sip of his grape juice.

"I'm pregnant!" Mei interjects.

Ed spits grape juice everywhere.

Winry gives him the dirtiest look from across the table and both Al and Mei gape at him.

_They're going to have a baby? Mei's pregnant. And holy shit Winry's pregnant too._ Ed has a feeling this pregnancy secret thing is about to get a lot harder from this point on tonight.

Well Ed sure knows how to draw a crowd. Winry looks utterly disappointed and Al has his head in his hands though Ed can see he's secretly laughing. The vest Al wears is completely splattered with the flecks of the red juice that Ed managed to spray all over him and there's grape juice running down Ed's face and onto his lap.

"Ed, you have a problem with that?" Mustang mocks, leaning back in his chair and raising an eyebrow at him.

"No—no problem," he manages to get out, mopping up his chin with his napkin and staining it red. At least he has the decency to look embarrassed about it. "Congratulations," he adds for good measure and means it. He really is happy for them, truly. It's just the timing for such an announcement—especially with the huge secret he's keeping—well it's awful to say the least.

Immediately the chatter rises up again, everyone congratulating the couple and asking all the usual questions that come with such an announcement: _how long have you known?_ and _when are you due?_ At least for the moment, Ed's faux pas is forgotten.

The party relocates back the living room to talk and Ed and Winry carry their sleeping children up to their bedrooms.

"Ed," Winry starts when they're finally alone together in the dining room picking up the sleepers. "You really are going to have to be not quite so obvious."

"What did you expect? I mean I haven't exactly been able to think about anything else tonight after what you told me. And then, out of the blue, they come announcing that they're expecting?"

The stairs creak as they march up to the kids' rooms.

"Just focus on the moment, Ed. It's too early to say anything."

"I know, I know."

"Just—don't do that again, alright?"

"You mean spit grape juice all over the table?" Ed asks with a raised eyebrow.

"Yes, Ed, I mean don't spit grape juice all over the table."

"You got it then."

They return downstairs and it seems the party is in full swing. Granny is playing something on the piano in the corner—a skill Ed didn't even realize she had—and Mustang and Hawkeye along with Al and Mei are dancing to an upbeat tune across their living room.

Ed and Winry join in until the next song starts up and Al cuts into Hawkeye and Mustang's dance, taking Hawkeye's hand for himself. Winry turns back and takes on Mei for the next song which leaves Ed with Mustang.

"Well, Fullmetal," Mustang says as they try (and fail) to dance around the others, "that was quite the reaction you had back there."

Ed grumbles something incoherent and Mustang smirks.

"It seems Mei and Al are catching up on you and Winry. If you're not paying too much attention they might have their second soon and then they'll pass you. You and Winry might want to get working on that third kid if you want to keep your lead."

Ed blanches as that statement.

"You look like you've seen a ghost, what's wrong?"

"Nothing's wrong," squeaks out Ed. "Why would you think anything was wrong?"

"Well I don't know, Fullmetal, but you've been acting awfully strange this entire evening which leads me to believe you're hiding something."

Ed pales. "I'm not hiding anything. Why would I be hiding something?"

"I was your commanding officer for five years. I've heard it all from you and I know when you're hiding something. You're not as slick as you think you are."

Ed looks away, his face burning at the thought of _oh fuck Mustang knows._

They don't say anything else for a while until Mustang yells out an _oh fuck Ed, you just stepped on my foot with your automail leg_, which gets Ed laughing.

The bastard deserves it for trying to stir Ed up like that.

When the music stops, Ed stalks into the kitchen to grab drinks for everyone and Al follows after to help him. Al grabs all the cups while Ed busies himself with grabbing some soda out of the fridge, the only thing he can seem to find to drink besides water.

Just before Al steps out of the kitchen, Ed puts a hand on his little brother's shoulder and Al freezes.

"Hey, Al."

"Yes, Brother?" Al turns around to face Ed.

"Congrats. On the kid I mean. I'm really happy for you."

Al beams like he's been waiting all night to hear exactly that and Ed wonders why he didn't say anything sooner. He reaches forward and ruffles Al's immaculately styled hair just for good measure, messing up his perfectly side-swept bangs.

"Thanks. I feel like I should hug you right now but my hands are full," Al says, nodding his head at all the cups he's holding.

"I can hug you later, after you've put those down."

They trail back into the living room to find everyone back into a deep chat about babies again and Ed groans.

"You and Winry planning on having any more?" Al nudges, setting the glasses onto the table and straightening back up.

"Something like that," Ed mumbles, pulling Al into the hug he told him he was due.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Nothing."

Al releases Ed, looking him dead in the eye. "Winry's pregnant too, isn't she?"

"What—I—" Ed sputters but knowing there's no covering this up now.

"Holy shit she _is_!"

"Oh for the love of God," Ed cries, smacking a hand over Al's mouth though it's clear everyone in the room has already heard.

"Is it true?" Mei asks, turning to look at Winry, "are you really pregnant too?"

"_Ed_," Winry groans.

"What!"

"You weren't supposed to tell anyone!"

"I didn't!"

"Yeah well clearly everyone knows now!"

"That's not my fault!"

"Yeah, well then how did Al figure it out?"

"Because he's a perceptive little shit."

"And—" Al struggles to break free of Ed's hand over his mouth, "and because you're the worst at keeping secrets, Brother."

"That's not true!"

Both Al and Winry give him such a strong sideways look of _really, Ed_ that Ed just rolls his eyes in defeat.

"Okay, so I'm bad at keeping secrets but it's not like I t_old_ anyone."

Winry crosses her arms and just sighs where she sits. "Well, I guess the cat's out of the bag now. _I'm pregnant_."

Mei squeals in delight and hugs Winry, gushing on and on about how cool it is that they're pregnant at the same time. Winry hugs her back though Ed can see her heart's not in it.

He sighs. He disappointed her.

Hawkeye, Mustang, and Al take on congratulating them with Mustang poking fun at Ed for being figured out.

"So how long have you known?" Granny asks when the initial shock has washed away.

Winry and Ed just look at each other and Ed pales.

"A couple of hours," Winry supplies and Mei gasps as Mustang lets out a low whistle.

"So Ed couldn't even keep it a secret for more than a day?" Mustang inquires and Ed feels the urge to get up and hit him. "Any other secrets you have worth sharing?"

"No, not really."

"None at all?" Mustang raises an eyebrow at this. "That seems unlikely."

"If you must know," Ed says, and a devilish smile grows across his lips. "The person who spilled ink across your favorite jacket that one time was me and Hawkeye totally saw me do it too and covered for me. I didn't let that one slip."

Mustang rears on Hawkeye. "You covered for this brat?" he asks incredulously.

"Just doing my job sir and protecting the youth," Hawkeye says, completely nonchalantly.

He gapes at her and Ed laughs at his helplessness.

Ed settles into the couch beside Al after that and Mustang has his go at telling secrets about Hawkeye which seems to get everyone riled up and before Ed knows it everyone is up in arms about different secrets they know about each other.

Winry gets up and takes her place on Ed's other side.

"Hey, Win," Ed starts, leaning in close to her to the point where he can feel her breath on his skin. "I really am sorry."

"Don't worry about it. It's only family."

"Yeah, but you didn't want me too—"

She shushes him. "If you must know, Ed, I already let it slip by accident to Riza and Granny so—"

"You _what_?"

She smiles and pulls him into a gentle kiss, cutting him off.

Maybe they're both terrible secret keepers.


End file.
